Instead of throwing a lot of money at a player who may or may not make it, they would be better off getting a fairly decent RL coach to employs as skills and defence Ford was a disaster, they would be better paying someone like Tony Smith a lot of money to become the next Skills/Defence coach at least he could improve everyone else's ball handling skills

Quote: Richie "Funnily enough.....wait until Tuesday.'" www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/23 ... mpionships Hopefully this will mean union converts (or any other sport) we develop into decent RL players won't be faced with having to either relocate, or a four hour round trip, if their to train with a pro RL club. Despite them currently being faced by that, we've come up with 11 (5 Super League) players in pro academies in four years....how much could we expand our pro playing basis by after this kind of geographical expansion?

Quote: Richie "Funnily enough.....wait until Tuesday.'" www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/23 ... mpionships Hopefully this will mean union converts (or any other sport) we develop into decent RL players won't be faced with having to either relocate, or a four hour round trip, if their to train with a pro RL club. Despite them currently being faced by that, we've come up with 11 (5 Super League) players in pro academies in four years....how much could we expand our pro playing basis by after this kind of geographical expansion?

How realistic are these plans Richie?

Are some of these clubs seriously going to be able to support a semi-pro side in the next couple of years - do they have the commercial infrastructure to do so?

I know that Coventry & Hemel were approached along with Nottingham about being fast tracked in C1. We decided it was unsustainable in the medium & long term. Coventry were a lot more serious about it, so would be my favourites were it to come off. I think there were figures of thousands of pounds in grants being offered for a 2 or 3 year period to help the new clubs attract players & get some infrastructure in place.

Depends what a semi-pro side costs!
In Northampton, the proposal backed by the chairman of Northampton Town FC. With average crowds of 5000 in a 7000 capacity (all-seater) stadium, they're about the right size to compare to CC1 RL, and compare with local RU clubs Bedford and Rugby.

Arrangements are still TBA, but I'd expect something like:
The semi-pro team is made up of players from our Demons side or Knights junior setup, plus some better RU players, plus some imported northerners/australians. These play a full length summer season.
Our current adult team 1st team runs as is, in an RLC Premier, providing playing opportunity for those either not good enough or unwilling to invest the time to play pro, but is effectively a 2nd team to the pros.
Our current adult 2nd team runs as is, in an RLC regional.
Neither would be financially connected to the pro team, but will share facilities and players. Both would be playing the shortened summer season we have now.
Our junior setup runs as it is now, standalone finances but partnered with the pros. The U18s move from the current regional league to either the NYL or pro academy league, to get a full length season. Effectively, this provides the pro team with a ready made academy setup.

If that works, and other clubs do the same, and clubs invest in developing local players rather than shipping in experienced RL players from the north/australia, then it provides a route to pro RL for a whole load of players who didn't have easy access to it before.

You're right, in that I'm not sure it would be self sufficient. Coventry, I'd guess, would partner with the local RU club, and have the experience of a year in NL3 to work from. Their junior setup has picked up a lot over the last couple of years, and is now comparable to ours.